Niels Feldmann

Capturing value from big data – a taxonomy of data-driven business models used by start-up firms

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to derive a taxonomy of business models used by start-up firms that rely on data as a key resource for business, namely data-driven business models (DDBMs). By providing a framework to systematically analyse DDBMs, the study provides an introduction to DDBM as a field of study. Design/methodology/approach To develop the taxonomy of DDBMs, business model descriptions of 100 randomly chosen start-up firms were coded using a DDBM framework derived from literature, comprising six dimensions with 35 features. Subsequent application of clustering algorithms produced six different types of DDBM, validated by case studies from the study’s sample. Findings The taxonomy derived from the research consists of six different types of DDBM among start-ups. These types are characterised by a subset of six of nine clustering variables from the DDBM framework. Practical implications A major contribution of the paper is the designed framework, which stimulates thinking about the nature and future of DDBMs. The proposed taxonomy will help organisations to position their activities in the current DDBM landscape. Moreover, framework and taxonomy may lead to a DDBM design toolbox. Originality/value This paper develops a basis for understanding how start-ups build business models capture value from data as a key resource, adding a business perspective to the discussion of big data. By offering the scientific community a specific framework of business model features and a subsequent taxonomy, the paper provides reference points and serves as a foundation for future studies of DDBMs.

Service Innovation Capabilities for Idea Assessment: An Appraisal of Established and Novel Approaches

The importance of innovation for companies to gain competitive advantage is widely acknowledged. While earlier studies have emphasised the critical importance of idea assessment as part of the new product and new services development process, the topic has been under-represented in academic research recently. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview on the depiction of idea assessment in services research. For this, we start by exploring the representation of the topic in question in recent service innovation capability frameworks. On a more operational level we reflect service-related publications on criteria, information sources, group compositions and approaches for idea assessment. Finally, by reporting on a case study with a German financial services provider, we introduce serious games and enterprise crowdfunding as two novel approaches for assessing service ideas. Overall, we find that internal, service providing staff should play a major role in the assessment of service ideas. Surprisingly, classical portfolio management approaches making use of deliberation in small management boards seem to be the predominant method discussed in the literature and applied in practice. Mechanisms which are designed to involve larger crowds into idea assessment exist, however, are not yet widespread. The two novel approaches show promising avenues for involving service providing staff into idea assessment in a motivating way.

Service Innovation Analytics: Towards an Approach for Validating Frameworks for Service Innovation Capabilities via Text Mining

The importance of innovation for companies to gain competitive advantage is widely acknowledged. Realizing service innovations has shown to provide some particular challenges to organizations. Consequently, in recent years, several frameworks of capabilities for service innovation have been published; however, often not yet validated. Conventional empirical validation approaches are time and resource intense. In this research-in-progress paper we aim for indications that text mining can be applied to companies’ documents written in natural language so that frameworks for service innovation capabilities can be validated. Building on established methods in text mining, we are working towards an approach to realize this. The paper outlines the approach and reports on the encouraging results from an exploratory study, which we have conducted by applying the approach to a single capability from a prominently discussed service innovation capability framework.

Service Innovation Analytics: Leveraging Existing Unstructured Data to Assess Service Innovation Capability

The importance of innovation for firms for gaining competitive advantage has been widely acknowledged. Innovation in services exhibits some particular challenges. In order to support formal service innovation management, several frameworks of capabilities for service innovation have been published in recent years. However, these frameworks often do not support the use of existing information to apply them to a firms context and to guide managerial decisions. In this paper the authors aim to show that a firms service innovation capability can be operationally diagnosed with the help of such a framework in a more concrete way, using existing unstructured data. Building on established methods in text mining, the authors are working towards an approach to realise this. The paper outlines the approach and presents the encouraging results from our exploratory study, as well as avenues for further development of the approach and its implementation in a management information system.

Smarter Apps – Motor für Geschäftsmodellinnovationen

Welche Moglichkeit zur Geschaftsmodellinnovation bieten neue Funktionalitaten von Smart Mobile Apps? Dieser Frage sind wir nachgegangen und haben gesehen, dass geolokalisierte Dienste, Augmented Reality und Social-Networking-Komponenten einige Optionen sein konnen, die es Firmen ermoglichen, ihr Wertversprechen und weitere Teile ihres Geschaftsmodells erfolgreich zu transformieren. Im Kern der Analyse steht die strukturelle und auf Praxisbeispiele angewandte Betrachtung zahlreicher Geschaftsmodellelemente. Es folgt ein Exkurs in den Bereich Mobile Commerce sowie ein Ausblick, der die Welt der Smart Mobile Apps mit dem „Internet der Dinge“ verbindet und somit die Integration von Smarter Apps in Alltagsgegenstande diskutiert. So ruckt schon heute die „intelligente Kleidung“ in den Raum des Moglichen, indem Sensoren in die Nahte von T-Shirts integriert werden.

Using Employees’ Collective Intelligence for Service Innovation: Theory and Instruments

In this chapter, we reflect on the potential and instruments for involving employees in service innovation processes. Based on a discussion of value co-creation scenarios in the context of service innovation, we conjecture that frontline employees of service providers can be powerful proxies for their customers. Thus, they might be a particularly valuable group to involve in service innovation endeavors. The quality of these proxies may increase with the depth of insights frontline employees can gain from their customers. Moreover, as the literature suggests, these employees can also cater for the strategic and cultural fit of service innovations to their organizations, to avoid a reported drawback of directly involving customers in the service innovation process. Hence, we first suggest leveraging the potential of large numbers of these employees through collective intelligence instruments and derive design recommendations for such approaches. In the second part of the chapter, we then introduce and compare four types of collective intelligence instruments that are currently used by companies to involve employees. We close by suggesting avenues for further research in this domain.

Employee-Centric Service Innovation: A Viable Proxy for Customer-Intimacy for Product-Focused Enterprises

Servitization has received significant attention from scholars and practitioners over the last decade. However, despite substantial research contributions in the fields of new service development and service innovation, product-focused small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to develop sophisticated service offerings. This paper attempts to better understand this discrepancy and suggests ways to overcome it. We have conducted a case study with a medium-sized manufacturing company that currently undertakes first steps in the development of advanced services. In terms of a theoretical contribution, our study indicates a limited understanding of the perceived value of services during the fuzzy front end of service innovation. Therefore, companies need to adopt new ways to understand their customers (i.e. increase customer intimacy). However, they often struggle to directly involve customers in the co-development of advanced services. In terms of a practical contribution, our research suggests that employee-centric service innovation—the idea of utilizing front line employees as proxies of customers—is a viable strategy to mitigate the identified challenges.